Not many people are talking about the lack of support natural mothers recieve from the feminism and human rights community at large. I have often pondered why this is. I think Rox nailed it on the head in her post

I was reminded this morning of an email exchange in my recent past about Utah. I asserted that it was common knowledge in the adoption community that if you wanted to get around a father’s rights you go to Utah to file for adoption. I was told I had no clue what I was talking about and that Utah is not the hot spot for adopting kids whose father’s want to parent. I decided it was not worth the time and effort to continue with the email exchange and have not spoken with this person again. If I could talk to them right now all I would say is …… Oh Really?

And this doesn’t even touch on the things done to mothers who set foot in Utah. Let’s not forget the Baby Tamia case. How many father’s were not emotionally or financially able to fight. This has to stop! The state of Utah does not get to decide for the rest of the country who does and does not deserve to be a parent. This is plain and simple kidnapping

I’m sure many people that read my blog already know of the problems with safehaven laws. I am not going to rant about how they leave adoptees with no hope of knowing their identity, encourage women to risk their lives by not seeking proper medical treatment, completely ignore the rights of the father, don’t even bother to make sure the person leaving the baby is the mother ect. Ok well I won’t rant much.

I want to talk about another aspect of these laws. I recently have had the misfortune of seeing what happens when a mother tries to reclaim her baby within the time frame allowed in these so called laws. This mother was put through months of jumping through hoops. In the begining she was threatened with criminal charges and the removal of her other children. The father who was unaware of the situation also had to jump through hop after hoop while the foster to adopt mother bonded with his child. It was over a month before he was even allowed to see his own child. I will not go into details because it is not my story to tell.

The latest turn of events is that the mother’s name is to be added to a statewide list of predators and child abusers for life. This is after Children’s Services tried every trick in the book but was forced by a judge to return the baby. Now they want to label the mother as a child abuser for the rest of her life.

Correct me if I am wrong (and I know I am not because I have read the laws a million times) but don’t these laws state specifically that the mother will not face any consequences for safehavening a newborn? How then do they justify adding the mother;s name to this list when their own offices had to admit she was a fit parent. She has never been investigated for anything with her other children. Nothing was found in the investigation to return the baby.

This family has been in court for several months and are now facing another court battle to keep her name off this list. This will cost money that a military family with small children just does not have. So dear readers, is anyone in TN up for helping?